Become your own ISP for fun, or because Ajit Pai gets his way

If you are reading this from the US you probably have an opinion about the news out of the FCC today and should probably express that opinion to your various congress critters, even though Ajit Pai has stated he won't listen. As a backup plan you might want to take a read through this article over at Hack a Day which describes how you can set yourself up as your own ISP, aka an Autonomous System. The process is nowhere near as simple as setting up a home internet connection and you will need some dedicated equipment you may or may not have lying around. Those who live outside the USA should still take a look as there is some very interesting learning material in the article.

"It was during the purchase of data centre rack space that [Kenneth]’s challenge was laid down by a friend. Rather then simply rely on the connection provided by the data centre, they would instead rely on forging their own connection to the ‘net, essentially becoming their own Internet Service Provider."

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About The Author

Call it K7M.com, AMDMB.com, or PC Perspective, Jeremy has been hanging out and then working with the gang here for years. Apart from the front page you might find him on the BOINC Forums or possibly the Fraggin' Frogs if he has the time.

The best way is to get theThe best way is to get the owners(Not the FCC minions, but the owners) attention is to close your wallets. If Comcast starts throttling/blocking any content that I regularly view for free then I can go with another providor as I’m in an area with actual competition.

For Folks without competition I’d say you can still drop your internet providor and go with your phone for a while and if enough folks start dropping then the owners will notice because their revenues will drop like a stone. With 5G phone service on the way some folks can not only cut the cord they can also cut that last mile lock-in from the folks like Comcast and other local cable/IP monopolies that have their local IP markets all to Lord Over with little competition.

Once the Mobile Phone Companies start offering plenty of 5G coverage things can become different and Google should have focused more on getting some backbone/trunk lines stretched around the country and maybe starting up some cell tower based internet, and phone, services in addition to Google’s fiber internet service to compete with the big cable/internet service providors. There is not much need to fight over stringing up fiber cables on telephone poles when some 5G Cell towers can make that a non issue and getting the backbone/trunk lines stretched can be less costly if there is not much of that last mile directly into homes to worry about. Even line of sight towers can be utilized for microwave backhaul until the connection to the main backbone/trunk line is patched into.

Then there is always the question of getting some laws to force the content providors to spin off their internet service providor divisions into seperate companies so that no one in the content creating/providing busiess is allowed to directly own any last mile wire internet service providor assets/businesses. The Internet is really a de facto public utility and shoud be regulated as such just like the Phone Companies are. Folks can always sue the FCC in federal court and try and force the US Justice Department’s antitrust division to enforce the antitrust laws already on the books.

The US Government can be sued if they are found to not be enforcing the laws already on the books. Next election cycle try and make Trust Busting as big of an issue as when the Standard Oil Trust(borken up in 1911) was found to be an abusive Monopoly and broken up by laws created by congress in creating the Sherman Antitrust Act(1) of 1890.

We are are in fact in a new Gilded Age of information technology for the last 50-60 years with the last 30 years being the most disruptive with its effects on the market place and consumers. So the internet like the phone/telegraph technology of the past 1 1/2 centuries needs some regulations when a few large inetrests(Cable/Media Trusts) corner the market and begin to abuse their monopoly market status to maintain their market share and the revenues that come with market share.

Hurt them in their pocketbooks and stock prices and they will take notice and elect folks that will start breaking up the big Intrests that abuse their monopoly status. Internet Service Providors need to be seperate entities from content creators/content providors. Break them apart Now!

Dropping landline internetDropping landline internet serivce and going with only cellular data is absolutely not the best way! Just because you switch to a cellular data for internet connection doesn’t save you from the lack of net neutrality.

It’s not the best way butIt’s not the best way but it’s a consumer option for at least having Email and some data services while Folks can put some financial hurt on the Abusive Big Cable-TV/Media/Internet Service providers like Comcast/others that are really just Like the Old Standard Oil Turst and that’s and Abusive Monopoly.

Say you go with a Phone Providor that’s not a big Big Cable-TV/Media/Internet Service provider like Comcast, well that’s going to hit Comcast in the wallet. So for Folks that are stuck with only Comcast in areas where there is no other choice than the real task is to hurt Comcast and the other Big Cable-TV/Media/Internet Service providers in their wallets. There may not be Cable competition in your area but there is better Phone competition(regulated also) in most areas and when 5G comes online the data rates will be high enough for most.

The Phone Companies do not have to worry about that last mile to your house that may be controlled by Comcast as the phone service comes over the 3G/4G air bandwidth! So that’s an end run around the abusive Big Cable-TV/Media/Internet Service provider TRUSTS’ lines and their IP packet protection racket.

Then after that it’s time to sue the US government and make them enforce the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 and force the Big Cable-TV/Media/Internet Service providors to divest of their internet service provider divisions and spin those divisions out as seperate companies, like the Government/Supreme Court forced the Standard Oil Trust to be borken up On May 15, 1911.

Let’s bust them up Now and they will not be so big and abusive anymore and all the Internet Service Providers will be prevented from becoming CableTV/Content providers also so no IP Packet Bridge Troll tactics allowed.

I have 2 options here… AttI have 2 options here… Att and Suddenlink. ATT is DSL and suddenlink is cable. Suddenlink has a 1.8 out of 5 rating…. I cant choose to not have internet since I make a living with it. Suddenlink is expensive, unreliable, shifty and down right doesnt give a shit what yiu think. ATT is slow but fairly reliable and doesnt care what you download or how much.
Not a lot of choice.

ATT will care after NetATT will care after Net Neutrality goes by by and they can stop any packets that they want without fear of the FCC.

ATT is also a big TV/Content/Internet Service Provider(And Ma Bell’s Remnent as a phone service providor) that needs to be forced to divest/spin its Internet Service Providor division off as a seperate business.

Lets Break these big cableTV/content Providors away from the Internet Service Provider holdings and make Internet Service Providers seperate from the Content Providors/Media intrests and make the Internet Service Part a regulated data superhighway like the interstate highway system is for transportation. ISPs should never be content providers ISPs should only supply Internet connectivity and access to the Web/Internet and charge the same rates for all internet packet traffic with no packet priority except for Government Emergency Traffic, and the US Government and the Universities have the Internet2 anyways for those special Needs.

If the media outlets reallyIf the media outlets really wanted this issue to touch off, they should re-brand Net Neutrality as Data Discrimination.
Data Discrimination has one of those keywords that causes feathers to ruffle.